Exploring Georgetown, Penang
Georgetown in Penang, Malaysia is a hotspot for story buffs; a origins as a British colonial trade repository portion as a substructure for a district’s dining, selling and informative attractions. Nicknamed a “Pearl of a Orient”, Georgetown’s standing as Penang’s inaugural chronological captivate was cemented in 2008 by UNESCO approval as a World Heritage Site.
Trishaw in front of Penang City Hall. Pic: Tourism Malaysia.
Over a centuries, trade and fight brought a abounding brew of racial settlers to Georgetown. Chinese, Indians, Malays, Arabs, Siamese, Burmese and European settlers built their homes and trade houses side by side in Georgetown, ensuing in a colorful collection of ancestral buildings: Chinese house houses, European churches, Chinese and Indian temples, Malay mosques, streets lined with bungalows and shophouses, and, of course, a aforementioned British fort.
Today, Georgetown lies in a 109-hectare tract restrained by Love Lane, Gat Lebuh Melayu, Jalan Dr. Lim Chwee Leong, and a Straits of Melaka. Within this district, visitors can find over 1,700 chronological buildings, with a many famous examples aligned down Georgetown’s 4 categorical streets Pengkalan Weld, Lebuh Pantai, Jalan Masjid Kapitan Keling and Lorong Love.
We suggest we start your Georgetown outing during a offices of a Penang Heritage Trust (26 Church Street, www.pht.org.my), where we can secure maps and brochures to assistance we get your orientation on this abounding chronological district in Penang.
Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion, Georgetown, Penang. Pic: Tourism Malaysia.
Penang’s Chinatown is located in a closeness of Lebuh Chulia and Lorong Love, and hosts some of Georgetown’s many renouned bars, restaurants, and bill hotels, along with a abounding array of shophouses, markets, and houses of worship. Visit a Khoo Kongsi house house during a dilemma of Lebuh Pitt and Jalan Masjid Kapitan Keling and a Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion on Lebuh Leith to see how moneyed Chinese merchants contingency have lived like behind in a day.
The Hainan Temple, Kuan Yin Teng temple, and Acheen Street Mosque denote a abounding faith practised by traders in Chinatown. And it wasn’t all trade going on around here – Chinese jingoist favourite Dr. Sun Yat Sen called Georgetown home for a while, staying during an unit during 120 Lebuh Armenian that is now a tabernacle to his memory.
Georgetown is large on places of worship, nowhere some-more so than Jalan Masjid Kapitan Keling, also famous by a nickname “the Street of Harmony”. Its moniker is well-earned; a accumulation of eremite buildings line this street, including a Kapitan Keling Mosque that gave it a name; a Sri Mahamariamman Temple; and a Goddess of Mercy Temple.
The British never unequivocally left Georgetown as we can see from a poignant architectural participation they left behind. Significant British sites embody Fort Cornwallis on a north-eastern coast; Victoria Clock Tower, a Town Hall and a State Assembly Building on Lebuh Light; St. George’s Anglican Church on Farquhar Street; and City Hall on Padang Kota Lama Road.
Fort Cornwallis, Georgetown, Penang. Pic: Tourism Malaysia.
Visit Little India for some of Georgetown’s excellent eats; it’s a area restrained by Penang Street, Market Street, King Street, and Queen Street. You’ll find mamak restaurants portion prohibited teh tarik; Indian restaurants portion adult roti canai, banana root rice, biryani, tandoori chicken, and an unconstrained accumulation of curries; and travel vendors hawking Malaysian noodle dishes.
Other pivotal places to see in Little India embody a King Street Temples, Nagore Shrine during a dilemma of King and Chulia Streets, and Sri Mahamariamman Temple on Queen Street. Penang has a richly-deserved repute for food, and many of that repute was warranted by Georgetown restaurants and hawkers. Chinese and Indian food come good and cheap, served in travel carts along Gurney Drive. For authentic low sum and noodle dishes served adult Penang style, Lebuh Cintra’s food carts are happy to oblige.
Jalan Penang caters to both high and low food budgets, with posh lounges and tapas bars, along with a enormous food justice Red Garden nearby a dilemma of Jalan Chulia. If we stay for a weekend, you’ll learn Upper Penang Road’s mutation into a travel marketplace on a final Sunday of each month. The “little Penang Street Market” facilities 70 stalls with travel food, live performances, kids’ activities, and other special diversions.
Other selling stops in Georgetown embody a imagination Gurney Plaza selling centre on Gurney Drive; a some-more downmarket Chowrasta Bazaar on Jalan Penang; Midlands Park Centre on Burmah Road; and a stalls along Lebuh Campbell, Lebuh Chulia, and Lebuh Pantai.
Getting around Georgetown is comparatively easy, interjection to a giveaway convey train (MPPP Rapid Penang CAT) that services 19 stops within Georgetown and a surrounding aegis zone. Other ride options embody taxis and trishaws; both Weld Quay Jetty and a KOMTAR Complex offer as vital train terminals for Penang.
Or we can only try on foot, a approach Georgetown’s abounding brew of residents did of old; we might be agreeably astounded by what we find while we travel down Georgetown’s slight history-filled streets.